Report: LGBT students face discrimination at US schools

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – A report from an international human rights organization concludes many public schools are still hostile environments for LGBT students.

The lengthy report from Human Rights Watch was released Wednesday in Sioux Falls and offered suggestions of ways for states to make policy changes.

It was based on hundreds of interviews primarily with current and former high school students, parents, administrators and teachers in Alabama, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas and Utah.

The report documented several challenges lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender students face - including in-person and online bullying, limits on LGBT student groups, exclusion of some topics from curricula and discrimination by classmates and school personnel.

Ryan Thoreson is a fellow in the organization's LGBT Rights Program. He says he heard stories of students who were "insulted, cyber-bullied or attacked."